Title
Recommendation to Adopt the Economic Development Strategic Plan (EDSP). (Community Development 256)
Body
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Elizabeth D. Warmerdam, Acting City Manager
Re: Recommendation to Adopt the Economic Development Strategic Plan (EDSP)
BACKGROUND
The City of Alameda contracted with Strategic Economics to help prepare a citywide Economic Development Strategic Plan (EDSP). The EDSP is the long-term (five to ten years) roadmap for business attraction, retention, and workforce development activities. It identifies specific goals, strategies, and actions necessary to create, support and attract businesses and jobs, diversify the local economy, and maintain fiscal health. The draft EDSP and its Background Report are attached as Exhibits 1 and 2.
This document will replace the previous EDSP, which was originally prepared in 2001, and revised in January 2008. Among other things, the previous EDSP, using Redevelopment funds, led to the restoration of the Alameda Theatre and the redevelopment of Bridgeside Shopping Center, now anchored by the Nob Hill supermarket. The California legislature subsequently dissolved local redevelopment agencies in 2011, taking away a major, large-scale economic development tool available in Alameda.
City staff and Strategic Economics began work on the EDSP in 2016. At its November 2, 2016 meeting, the Mayor's Economic Development Advisory Panel (EDAP) appointed four members to join a representative from the Planning Board on an Ad Hoc Committee for preparation of the EDSP. The Ad Hoc Committee met twice to develop guiding principles and a framework for the EDSP.
These principles and framework were presented to the Planning Board in December 2016, and to the City Council in February 2017. In response to City Council direction, an EDSP Task Force was created to provide a broader, community-driven process for completing the Plan consistent with the previous EDSP planning ...
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